The present invention generally relates to storage and, more particularly, to an apparatus for storing items that come in pairs.
When a household item is not in use, it is often stored, for example, in a closet. While this makes for a more organized home, it leads to closets being one the most cluttered spaces of the home, complicating the process of retrieving items from the closet.
One item frequently stored in closets is shoes. A single person typically has a shoe collection consisting of several pairs of shoes to wear during different occasions and to match various outfits. Shoes are traditionally stored at the bottom a closet, thereby monopolizing a majority of the floor space. As the closet becomes cluttered, retrieving a desired pair of shoes become an increasingly difficult task. All too often a person locates a first shoe and frustratingly searches for its matching shoe. For this reason, various shoe racks have been developed in order to free up floor space and bring order to the closet.
Traditional floor racks are rested upon the ground and include shelves that allow a user to stack shoes while they are not being worn. Suspension racks on the other hand, are suspended from a wall, a door, or from a closet rod, and store shoes within cloth pouches.
Although traditional floor racks and suspension racks are more space efficient than storing shoes on a closet floor, both racks have drawbacks. Traditional floor racks, for example, are often either not large enough to store an entire shoe collection or so large that the shoe rack requires a generously sized walk-in-closet. While suspension racks are more space efficient than traditional floor racks, shoes stored within the cloth pouches may not be visible, rendering the task of selecting a pair of shoes to wear more difficult. Furthermore, larger boots and high heeled shoes may not fit within the pouches.
There therefore is a need for a more efficient shoe rack that both stores and displays shoes when they are not being worn.